My nephew Alex recently started a job with a company called
Catchword. It's a naming agency. Their clients are corporations who are
launching new products or rethinking their existence, but I think they could
start a whole division to help people like me.
Writers have to name things all the time. Characters, cities,
streets, pets, just to mention a few. In historical fiction, names must be changed to protect the innocent. If you’re writing a book that
involves any world building, you’ll have to name all the creatures, the clothing, the food, the transportation, and whatever screen device
they watch or watches them. No wonder I stick to my
version of realistic fiction. I know I could never come up with all those
names!
I haven’t even mentioned the most important thing that needs a name––the book itself .
I don’t remember having a Eureka moment when I thought of this title. It seems pretty straightforward. Half of it is comprised of the
names of the two main characters––Zeno (the African grey parrot) and Alya (the
girl). The squiggle of an ampersand that links them promises a closer connection than an ordinary "and."
I’ve already blogged about how the parrot was named after the
Greek philosopher Zeno who was one of the early Stoics. The parrot Zeno is a curmudgeon, so it makes sense that his
name ends in “no.”
The girl's name had to start with the letter A. I liked how "Alya" sounds strong, without being harsh. The syllable at the end is kind of like a cheer or the noise tennis players make when they smash the ball
cross-court. “Yah!” Sounds in words are like a little bit of hidden music.
But what about the rest? What about Desperate Adventures? Why
not reckless quests? Serious escapades? Overwhelming exploits?
Desperate has despair. Overcoming
despair is often what I write about––even though most of my readers are years
from being adults. If you want to observe true courage, watch a kid walk
down the hall of her middle school.
Adventure has advent––the start, the
beginning, the arrival of something important, like a brand new story.
Aren’t words wonderful?
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